How to Connect Reddit Ads to ChatGPT with MCP?

Before you start

You'll need a SourcetoMCP account with at least one brand created, a Reddit account with access to at least one Reddit ad account, and a ChatGPT account on a Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise or Education plan. Custom MCP connectors run through developer mode, which works on ChatGPT on the web only.

Reddit's Ads API is open to every developer, so there is no allowlist to join and no approval to wait on. You also do not need your own Reddit developer app or an API token, because SourcetoMCP hosts the MCP server and runs the authorisation for you.

Connect Reddit Ads to SourcetoMCP

1. 1From your dashboard, go to Connectors → Add a connection.
2. 2Find the Reddit Ads card and select Connect.
3. 3Sign in with the Reddit account that has access to the ad account you want. Reddit shows its own authorisation screen and asks you to approve reporting and campaign management access. SourcetoMCP never sees your Reddit password.
4. 4Back in SourcetoMCP, pick which ad account to connect, then confirm. It appears on your Connections page. Connect a second ad account as its own connection if you manage more than one.

Reddit finds your ad accounts through the businesses your Reddit account belongs to, so the list is built from the businesses you are a member of rather than from the ad accounts directly. That matters when the list comes back empty, which the troubleshooting section covers.

Add SourcetoMCP as a connector in ChatGPT

1. 1In SourcetoMCP, open Connect an agent from the dashboard sidebar and copy your server address (it looks like https://sourcetomcp.com/api/mcp).
2. 2In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Security and login, and turn on Developer mode. Custom MCP connectors sit behind this toggle, and it only appears on ChatGPT on the web.
3. 3Open the Plugins menu and select the “+” button to create a developer-mode app.
4. 4Enter the name SourcetoMCP, paste in your server address, and pick OAuth as the authentication type.
5. 5Save. The app now sits under Drafts in your app settings, where you can switch individual tools on or off.
6. 6The first time ChatGPT calls it, you'll be asked to sign in to SourcetoMCP and approve access, the same OAuth approval you'd see connecting any other app. After that it reconnects on its own.

Once approved, the connection appears under Active connections on the Connect an agent page in SourcetoMCP, so you can see exactly what has access at any time.

Ask ChatGPT about your Reddit Ads account

A developer-mode app stays off until you pick it. In a chat, open the Plus menu, choose Developer mode, and select SourcetoMCP for that conversation. Naming the app in your question helps ChatGPT reach for the right tool, as in “Use the SourcetoMCP app to get my Reddit campaign spend last month”. Try something like:

1. 1Which campaigns spent the most last month, and what did they return?
2. 2Break my ad group performance down by hour of day.
3. 3Which communities and interests are my conversions coming from?
4. 4List every campaign that is currently active.

The hour-of-day breakdown is the one worth knowing about, because it is what makes a scheduling decision possible rather than a guess. Reddit's own documentation notes that metrics can take a few hours to settle as events arrive, so very recent numbers may still move.

What ChatGPT can create and change

Reddit Ads through SourcetoMCP is not a read-only connector. Of its 18 operations, 11 read and 7 write. ChatGPT can create a campaign against one of four objectives (traffic, conversions, app installs or awareness), create and update ad groups including subreddit exclusions and a weekly delivery schedule, create and update individual ads, and build custom and saved audiences.

New campaigns are created paused. Nothing spends until you or ChatGPT explicitly turns one on. Anything that writes back asks you to confirm first, and ChatGPT shows you the JSON payload it plans to send. Read it before you approve, since that payload is where you can check the ad account id and the budget.

Two details will come up the first time ChatGPT creates a campaign. Creating one needs a funding instrument, so ChatGPT looks yours up first. Adding a daily budget also needs a bid type and a conversion pixel, so it looks those up too. If you have no pixel yet, set one up in Reddit Ads before asking for a budgeted campaign.

ChatGPT can also write the creative itself, as a text or image post, rather than needing a post to exist already. Image creatives take a URL and Reddit downloads and hosts the image. Post creation runs as a background job on Reddit's side, so ChatGPT submits the job and checks back for the finished post rather than getting it instantly. A short wait there is normal.

Troubleshooting

No ad accounts appear when connecting: Reddit lists ad accounts through the businesses your Reddit account belongs to, so an account with no business membership returns an empty list even when you can see ads in the interface. Get added to the business that owns the ad account in Reddit's own business settings, then reconnect.

Developer mode is missing from Settings: it is available on Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts, and only on ChatGPT on the web. The mobile apps do not show it.

The app never appears in a chat: developer-mode apps sit under Drafts and stay off until you pick them. Open the Plus menu, choose Developer mode, and tick SourcetoMCP for that conversation.

A new post has not appeared yet: post creation is a background job, so ask ChatGPT to check the job again in a moment. The post id only exists once Reddit finishes the job.

ChatGPT says it can't find the tool or has no data: open the app's details page and use Refresh to pull the current tool list from the server. If that changes nothing, check the connection still shows under Active connections in SourcetoMCP.

Revoking access

You can disconnect from either side. In SourcetoMCP, remove the ad account from your Connections page, or revoke ChatGPT's access entirely from the Connect an agent page. In ChatGPT, open your app settings, find SourcetoMCP under Drafts, and delete it. Turning Developer mode back off hides every custom app at once without deleting any of them. To cut the Reddit side as well, remove SourcetoMCP from the authorised applications list in your Reddit account settings.

Still stuck?

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